


Stepping Out

by vmprsm



Series: Twenty-Six Weeks [4]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Beach Sex, Beach episode!!, F/M, M/M, Magic, Magic Forests, Some fighting, Vacation, also technically a meet the parents episode, but it is a good thing not a trigger, its in the end notes, so if you really need to know what it is now, there is a hidden tag that I dont want to spoil, this got entirely out of hand, vampire!hux, wolf/witch!Kylo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-19
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-25 15:27:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9826424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vmprsm/pseuds/vmprsm
Summary: Upon the insistence of his parents, Kylo and Hux take a trip to the mountains for a vacation. Between the beach, the forest, and the beautiful house, they should have a nice time. However, things aren't 100% what they seem.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is it, the last installment of Twenty-Six Weeks. It's been so fun, and I really enjoy this universe, but it's time to move on. I hope this is the closure you're all looking for, it is for me. <3

“Hux,” Kylo whined, dragging out the ‘u’, while stepping brazenly into Hux’s room at four in the afternoon and rolling unceremoniously onto the bed.

 

Hux was a little ball on the side farthest from the door, wrapped in his quilt. The blinds were drawn, letting only the barest amount of diluted illumination into the room, but Kylo could see the fiery red of Hux’s hair from the top of the blankets. 

 

The mussed head rose, turning just enough that Kylo could see the side of this mouth. “Do not tell me you woke me up before sundown.”

 

“But Hux, this is important.” Kylo’s voice held a puppyish whine, as if he knew he was doing something bad but didn’t want to stop. Actually, that’s exactly what it was. Hux scoffed.

 

“I’m going to hurt you.”

 

“Oh, okay.”

 

“Not in a...augh.” Hux rolled over in his cocoon, pinning Kylo with a glare. Kylo, for his part, was still sprawled lazily across the rest of the bed. He dropped his head to the side and smiled at Hux.

 

Hux wasn't fooled. Despite how handsome that smile was, it only meant trouble. 

 

“What is it, then?” Hux asked, with the tone that said he wasn’t interested in the answer.

 

Kylo launched into it anyways. “So my mom called. This is the longest I’ve been away from home, or nearby, and my family wants to see me. But I don’t want to go.”

 

“Why’s that?” Hux shuffled up a little higher in the bed, head propped more visibly on the pillow. 

 

“Well, they’re...overbearing. I’m happy here, with you. I don’t  _ need _ to see them. I know they’re fine.” 

 

“Kylo,” Hux removed the blanket from around his shoulders, sat up, and frowned at the light seeping through the blinds before he continued. “As someone who no longer has any family, I must impress upon you the importance of cherishing them while they are around.”

 

Kylo looked surprised. “Not a sentiment I would expect from you.”

 

“Being loved is important.” Hux shrugged. “Embrace that. You should go see them. I’m sure I’ll live without you for a few days.” He slipped back into the sarcastic tone that drove Kylo crazy in the worst and best way.

 

A light came to Kylo’s eyes, and his grin widened. “Then you should come with me. So I can embrace you too.”

 

“Absolutely not.” 

 

“Why, Hux?” Kylo whined again, rolling to bump against Hux’s knees.

 

“I don’t fly, and I assume the drive is more than a day?”

 

“I don’t fly either! But we can just take your car. I’ll even drive Hux, c’mon. I don’t want to go alone.”

 

“You don’t even  _ want to go _ .”

 

“Exactly! It’ll be much better with you.”

 

Hux sighed, letting a hand escape his covers to rest in Kylo’s hair, petting gently. Kylo made a rumbling sound in his chest. “It isn’t as if I don’t have the time off available…”

 

Kylo flopped over to his side, facing his partner. “That sounds like a yes.”

 

“Is this weekend too soon? The faster this is over the better, it's not as if the days are getting any shorter.” 

 

“Perfect!” Kylo grabbed the edges of Hux’s quilt, pulling him forward. Hux, caught off guard, was left sprawled on top of the larger man. Taking cool cheeks in his warm hands, Kylo kissed him until Hux stopped resisting, melting gradually into the affection. 

 

-

 

They left in the afternoon by Hux’s insistence, (“I am  _ not _ going out before 3pm,”) and when the sun went down he emerged from his pile of blankets in the back to attempt to push Kylo out of the drivers seat. 

 

“Pull over, you’ve driven for five hours.”

 

“I said I would.” Kylo frowned.

 

“Yes, but I’m awake now, it’s only fair.”

 

Hux tried to reason, but Kylo was stubborn. Hux was watching the streetlights flash off Kylo’s necklace as he said, “You agreed to come. This makes us even. If you really want, you can drive part of the way back.”

 

Hux huffed, but crawled into the passenger seat, long thin limbs spidering out to lend him balance. 

 

“Damn.”

 

“What?”

 

Kylo looked forlorn. “I’m not sure how I’m going to keep my hands off you for four days. I should have jumped you before we left.”

 

Hux was old enough he no longer blushed at such phrases, but he averted his eyes to look out the side window. “I’m sure you’ll survive.”

 

“I don’t know,” Kylo said, and his tone had Hux looking out of the corner of his eye. Kylo was grinning. “I may just have to pull you into a secluded corner when no one is looking.”

 

“Good luck with that.” Hux deadpanned. 

 

Kylo pressed further, clearly looking to gain a reaction. He did this quite often, delighting when Hux finally broke. “I could cast a little something so we wouldn’t be seen...or would you prefer me not to?”

 

“Would those spells even work on your own family?”

 

“...yes.” Kylo replied, but over the past few years Hux had learned he was a horrible liar. 

“Liar.”

 

“Shut it. You’ll be lucky if I don’t surprise you and make you come so loud the entire forest hears.”

 

Hux laughed. “Again, good luck with that.”

 

Kylo growled, and Hux blanched slightly. “Alright, Hux,” he purred, “we’ll see.”

 

Hux suddenly felt he’d made a mistake.

 

-

  
  


They arrived at an abysmally late two in the morning, Kylo yawning as they turned up a drive that was more of a cut-out space in the forest as opposed to any sort of intentional driveway. 

 

Sensing Hux’s dubious observations, Kylo said “My father cut out the path twenty or so years ago, when we got our first car. Before you just walked through the forest until you found it.” He sounded amused.

 

“Your family doesn’t have many guests, does it.” Hux said.

 

Kylo laughed shortly. “Other than family? No. Even then, my parents are fairly reclusive. Most of our kind is.” Hux wasn’t sure if he meant witches or wolves or both, but didn’t press the subject.

 

The house that emerged from around the curve was more like a cottage in design but was sprawling enough to surprise him. Kylo continued to talk as he slowed down, looking for a spot between the trees to put the car. There was no other car in sight.

 

“Yeah so it’s only my parents that live here now. I keep thinking they’ll try for another kid but, well, I was a handful.”

 

Hux snorted.

 

“Shut up. Anyways, sometimes my cousins or whatever will show up, so they added on for guest rooms, and some of the rooms are just ritual spaces. My father has a whole room of just windchimes and stuff he’s found in the forest. 

 

“Windchimes, inside?” Hux started rummaging around, twisting backwards in his seat to find his bag, knees coming up onto the seat. He’d preemptively packed his blackout curtains and a couple bags from the hospital, just in case. 

 

A whooshing sound cut through the air, ending in a sharp crack. Hux stiffened, a low burning spreading on his backside. Very slowly, he turned his head back, to see Kylo grinning like he’d just won the lottery. His hand was still poised above Hux’s ass. 

 

In the wake of Hux’s silence, Kylo said “Yes. My father can create wind wherever he wants.”

 

“If you do that again, Kylo, I swear--”

 

He cut off as he caught sight of the front door opening. He twisted back into his seat, careful of the sting that would hopefully fade off very soon with his healing ability. Kylo hit  _ hard.  _ The man in question, possibly sensing that he was on thin ice, pushed open the driver's door with a quick pull of the handle and a push of his soft boot and scrambled out. 

 

“Hey Mom,” he said, leaving the door ajar. He circled it, gathering up a shockingly small woman into his arms as she cross the yard. It wasn’t much of a yard, Hux mused, it was more like just a space without trees. It was entirely unkempt otherwise, tall thin grass swaying around their knees in the cool breeze that blew through the space, rustling weed flowers in a multitude of colors. 

 

The hug ended as Hux carefully stepped his way out of the SUV, scowling as the wind ruffled his hair. He wiped the expression off as Kylo’s mother looked at him. 

 

Her face went blank for a moment, nostrils flaring as the wind brought Hux’s scent to her. The flowers woven deeply through her hair, braided up into a swirling ring that looped around her skull, fluttered, and the multitude of bracelets on her wrists jangled gently. 

 

“Good morning, ma’am.”

 

“Good morning,” she replied slowly, “My name is Leia.”

 

“Hux.”

 

A strange silence fell, and after the first few painful seconds Kylo clapped his mother on both arms. She started slightly. 

 

“Well! It’s super late, I’m tired, let’s go inside.”

 

Leia was all motherly bustle in a heartbeat. “Of course, yes. I’ll put tea on, you can take the first guestroom.” She turned to go, but gave Hux a parting glance. He waited until she was back inside, then opened the trunk to grab their things.

 

-

 

Through the wood paneling of the walls in the first guestroom, Hux could easily hear the conversation in the next. First was Leia’s frustrated, rough voice. 

 

_ “You brought a vampire? You’re dating one of them?” _

 

Hux winced slightly. It had been a long time since he had heard the v-word, preferring to avoid it and simply explain his condition. Or hide it entirely. He tried not to be insulted--most other supernatural creatures viewed his kind as either a parasite, or a cheat, as magic wasn’t inherent in their blood. 

 

_ “I did.”  _ He heard Kylo reply,  _ “And if you have a problem with it we can leave.” _

 

Kylo’s voice was a balm to his nerves. To hear his lover stick up for him, well, that was quite nice. He settled back against the pillows he’d propped up on the bed.

 

_ “No, of course you don’t need to leave. Don’t be dramatic B--Kylo. I’m just surprised. Tell your father before he finds out on his own.” _

 

_ “Yeah yeah,”  _ Kylo grumbled quietly, and only by knowing his mannerisms did Hux hear it. His ears had perked at what seemed like a slip up from Leia. B-what? With their conversation bubbling down into trivial chatter, Hux pulled out his laptop to get his work done before he had to return. Spreadsheets didn’t fill themselves out. 

 

After a few minutes of frustrated tapping, he dropped his head back and groaned towards the ceiling. No wifi. What was wrong with these people?

 

-

 

“Kylo,” Hux started sweetly, when said man wandered in two hours later. 

 

Kylo stopped just inside the doorway, looking wary. “What?”

 

“One, where is the internet connection?”

 

Kylo looked abashed. “We don’t have one.”

 

“And  _ why,  _ pray tell?”

 

“Because we don’t need it.”

 

“But  _ I _ need it.” Hux groaned.

 

Kylo shrugged and fished his phone from his pocket. “Don’t turn the call capabilities back on, but you can use that as a hotspot. It goes on the company bill anyways.”

 

Hux snatched up the sleek black device, greedily typing in the passcode. Kylo turned away, rolling his shoulders and starting for the connected bathroom. He paused when he heard Hux say quietly again, “Kylo.”

 

He turned on a heel to see Hux holding the phone loosely in two hands, resting in his lap. He was looking at it as if it had some answer he couldn’t puzzle out. Kylo waited. 

 

“How did your mother know about me?”

 

Kylo sucked in a breath. He pushed a hand into his overgrown hair and let the air out. “Mom...mom has very subtle strengths. But her sense of smell is impeccable. I should have told her beforehand but--”

 

“I can leave.” Hux closed his eyes. “I’ll take the car and pay for a train back for you or whatever--”

 

Kylo crossed the room in three strides and plopped onto the bed, yanking Hux into his arms. Hux protested noisily, phone sliding out of his hands as he gripped at Kylo’s ridiculously oversized arms. Nose pressed into dark orange hair, Kylo said “No. If you go, I go. And we don’t need to go anywhere. She’ll get over it, it isn’t her life. Our kind is usually...we don’t play well with others. Tight family units and whatnot. Our magic is powerful, but delicate. Our wolves are strong, but cautious. It’s not you, I promise.”

 

Hux heaved a sigh. “I should be used to it by now, honestly.” He reached a hand up to fiddle with Kylo’s newest pendant between two long fingers, the chain having draped itself over his shoulder.

 

“Don’t say that.” Kylo muttered back, nuzzling his face further into Hux’s hair. “They’ll get over it.” His voice was sad, almost to breaking and Hux relented. He twisted around in Kylo’s arms, pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. 

 

“Okay. We give it a chance.”

 

-

 

In the light of early morning, the house was much more alluring. Its homely cottage feel was supplanted by a notion of depth, a gentle mysteriousness that only deepened with the rising sun. As Hux watched it rise between the mountains, stifling his body’s urge to sleep, he traced a finger along the banister of the porch that edged the front and one side of the house. It was intricately carved with a motif of flowers and vines, interspersed with what looked like runes. Maybe sigils?

 

The rest of the house, the baseboards and crown molding and door frames, was similarly adorned. Carved artwork of natural scenes, ranging from whimsical swirls of windblown leaves to sparse burnt woodland that seemed to be  _ actually _ burnt into the frame. The walls themselves were a thick tasteful stucco in varying neutral tones. Now sleepy and less guarded, the energy of the house, its sheer weight in magic, tingled gently along Hux’s skin. Plants hung from a plethora of places, in windowsills and from pots, even coming straight from the  _ wall _ in one instance. 

 

The forest was thick, but the breeze seemed to be never ending. Still, on the edge of the air, at the tail end of every gust, there was the smell of something unexpected. Something like...salt?

 

Sleepy arms wrapped around a slim waist and pulled, pressing Hux’s cool back against Kylo’s furnace of a chest. Hux hummed, and for a moment Kylo joined him.

 

“Why are you awake?” Kylo asked.

 

“I could ask the same of you,” Hux replied.

 

“I used to wake at dawn when I lived here, seems it’s still ingrained in me.”

 

“Mm.” Hux said. 

 

“How much longer can you be out?”

 

Hux dug his finger into the cutout of a bird in the railing. “Couple hours before I need shade. I was downtown two days ago, remember?”

 

Kylo nodded, bumping his chin into Hux’s shoulder repeatedly. “Good.” Then he started stepping backwards towards the doorway, his grip on Hux unrelinquishing. 

 

Flailing, Hux squawked as his hands left the railing and he was dragged back inside. Kylo bent down at the threshold, hooking one arm under Hux’s legs and hefting him up in a bridal carry.

 

The blush that spread over Hux’s face was impressively red given his condition, and entirely ridiculous. Kylo picking him up was rare and usually very purposeful. “You are  _ not _ taking me to bed…are you?”

 

Kylo chuckled as he wound them carefully around the plants and down the narrow hallway. “No. Do you want me to?”

 

“No! Your mother is here!”

 

“Well good thing that wasn’t the plan then.”

 

Hux crossed his arms over his chest with a huff. Enhanced strength or no, he couldn't out-grapple Kylo. “What  _ is _ the plan then?” He asked as Kylo maneuvered them into their borrowed bedroom.

 

“This.”

 

Kylo dropped him. Hux landed in an angry pile on the sheets, previously mangled from Kylo’s sleep. As he pulled himself into a semblance of sitting, he watched Kylo turn and rummage in his bag. He opened his mouth to speak again, and got a faceful of clothing as Kylo tossed them his way. 

 

Outright laughing, Kylo pulled out more clothes as Hux dragged the fabric off his nose with a scowl, mussing his hair beyond immediate repair. He looked down at the clothing clutched in his grip. 

 

“Why am I holding a bathing suit.”

 

“Cause we’re going to the beach?”

 

“No we aren’t. Did you forget what time it is already?”

 

Kylo turned back, holding something black in his hand. “That’s what this is for.” He approached Hux and before any protest could be made, plopped the item onto his head. 

 

A big floppy sunhat sat precariously on Hux’s brow, his bangs sticking out comically. 

 

_ “No.” _

 

_ - _

 

The beach wasn’t so bad, if you didn’t count the horrible beating sun and the wolf frolicking in the waves and splashing him  _ every chance he got _ . 

 

Hux reached out a hand, leaving the safety of his frankly enormous umbrella, and snagged Kylo’s tail as he ran by. The wolf yelped and skidded to a stop, falling back on his ass. Sand flung everywhere, and Hux realized his mistake as he was suddenly covered in a fine layer. 

 

The form of the dark wolf melted away and Kylo lay in the white sand, naked as the day he was born. “What was that for!” He demanded, turning an angry pout towards Hux.

 

Hux rubbed his hand, the strength of the sun leaving it overly warm and slightly uncomfortable. “If you splashed me one more time I would have broken your tail instead. I thought it was a kindness to stop you before that happened.”

 

“You’re being no fun, Hux.”

 

“You dragged me out here in the middle of the day!”

 

Kylo huffed in irritation, rolling himself up and off the sand. Being damp, it stuck to him everywhere. Hux managed to school his features before he laughed. Tottering the couple steps to the edge of Hux’s towel, Kylo suddenly went limp and collapsed forward, pushing Hux backward and entirely covering him in witch and sand. 

 

“Kylo what the fuck!” Hux pushed at Kylo’s shoulders and got no response. He paused. “Kylo?”

 

He turned his head sideways, and caught the edge of a grin as Kylo’s face met his shoulder. He flicked Kylo’s arm. 

 

He received a nip to the shoulder in response.

 

“Child.” Hux chastised.

 

“Fuddy duddy.”

 

“Fu-what? What year are you from Kylo?”

 

“Oh, don’t act like you haven’t said it. You were alive then too.” 

 

Hux scoffed as Kylo lifted onto his elbows, their noses barely brushing as Hux glared. 

 

“You’re nude.”

 

“I was just a  _ wolf _ and you’re concerned about my nudity?”

 

Hux scrunched his eyebrows, beaten. Kylo laughed. 

 

“No one is coming to this beach. My family owns it, and it’s nothing but forest for miles otherwise. You can be yourself too, you know.”

 

“Sit out in the sun and eventually catch fire?”

 

Kylo rolled his eyes and bent down, capturing Hux’s lips. 

 

A fission of frustration passed between them until the first hint of iron hit Hux’s tongue. He started, then grabbed Kylo by the ears, holding his mouth in place as he searched for more. 

 

The source was a newly opened cut on Kylo’s tongue, and Kylo whined as Hux jabbed his own tongue into the injury. As the flow stemmed itself, Hux pulled away. Their eyes matched intensity in that moment, dilated and fiery as they panted. 

 

“That...was cheating.”

 

Kylo heaved a breath. “Worked though.”

 

Given the erections trapped between them, Hux could not argue. He sighed. “Okay. I’ll give this a real shot, but you cannot be such a pest.” 

 

Kylo dug his fingers into the sand just outside the safety of the umbrellas shade, and fiddled the edge of the sunhat that Hux was begrudgingly wearing with his other hand. “Build a sandcastle with me?”

 

Hux eyed the sand, then turned his gaze the Kylo, considering. “You’ll have to bring the stuff to me, I suppose.”

 

-

 

Dinner with Leia was an awkward affair all around. Kylo would not stop tearing his napkin into little pieces, despite the numerous times he was kicked in the shin by both Hux and Leia. Separately, of course, as they shot each other strained smiles to cover up the fact they were being quite vicious under the table. 

 

Hux politely declined food, to which Leia blushed in embarrassment. Kylo dug into what must have been at least half of a deer, cooked to perfection and covered in an immense amount of herbs and spices. It smelled heavenly, but Hux knew better, he’d made the mistake of eating real food enough times in his youth. 

 

They calmly listened to the loud and obnoxious sounds of Kylo chewing, Leia daintily cutting her meal with a fork and knife, and Hux watching in a mixed state of boredom and intrigue. In another life, in other circumstances, he could have been fascinated with Leia, not as Kylo’s mother but as a figure of her own. From what he could sense of her, she was sharply intelligent and stubbornly loyal, but with enough of both traits to make dangerously smart decisions. The low hum of magic around her was a good deterrent for him not going any deeper. He’d become accustomed to the magic Kylo sometimes let linger around him, but too much was even noticeable by humans, and Kylo had trained himself to hide it so well it was mostly second nature. Leia had no such necessity, and it flitted around her like birds around a nest. 

 

“Hux, what do you think of our home?”

 

Hux blinked at her, and Kylo paused his assault on the deer. “It’s lovely, ma’am.”

 

“Leia, please. Have you been out in nature like this before?”

 

“Not exactly,” Hux moved the napkin he had put in his lap out of habit to the tabletop, “but my childhood home was in a forest. Colder, but there were a lot of wolves.”

 

Leia looked amused. She looked him over, settling on his left hand, perched now on the tablecloth. His long sleeve had ridden up, and her eyes widened only slightly as she looked upon the bracelet tied securely around his wrist. 

 

“That is a beautiful bracelet.” She stated.

 

“Yes.” Hux’s tone was cautious, similar to putting one’s hand out to a wild animal for it to be sniffed. 

 

“And what did you give him in return, if anything?”

 

_ “Mother,” _ Kylo said, a clear warning. 

 

“I’m simply surprised, B--”

 

“Mother!” Kylo smacked his hand on the table, silencing her momentarily.

 

She gathered herself as he spoke again. “What he has or hasn’t done is none of your business.”

 

“I believe it is quite the opposite, if you intend to--”

 

“Well!” Hux cut in, standing from his seat. He shook his arm, settling the fabric back over his wrist. “I think I will retire, and let you two discuss. It seems you have been apart long enough that it may be prudent. Thank you for dinner, despite my circumstances.”

 

“Hux,” Kylo started, but Hux put a hand on his shoulder. He waited until it was quiet, and walked out of the room. 

 

-

 

After a long and very annoying conversation with his mother, set several rooms  _ away _ from the one he was staying in with Hux (that man had ears like a bat, that part of the myths was correct), he tiredly trudged back into said room and collapsed face first onto the bed. Hux looked over from the book he had been reading and raised an eyebrow. 

 

“I’m not surprised that you’re tired, with all the running around you did today.”

 

“‘m uree, ux.”

 

“Come again?”

 

Kylo slowly turned his face out of the pillow. “I’m sorry, Hux.” He sighed, wiggling his body over until he was pressed up to Hux’s legs. “My parents are very traditional, and they don’t get out to...well, anywhere, very often. Mom has some outdated ideas of mates and souls and  _ species- _ -”

 

“What is ‘B’?”

 

Sputtering to a halt, Kylo then said eloquently, “What?”

 

“Well your mother keeps almost saying it and now I’m genuinely quite curious.”

 

“It’s...not important.”

 

“Seems important.”

 

“Well it isn’t.”

 

Hux eyed him. “I can tell when you're lying to me, I can hear it.” He tapped Kylo’s forehead with a finger. 

 

“Okay fine, I’m not going to tell you.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because I don’t want to.”

 

“Now that’s not--”

 

“Goodnight, Hux! Busy day tomorrow and man am I just wiped from today.” Kylo’s attempt to redirect the conversation was transparent at best, and Hux groaned in irritation. Kylo rolled over, putting out the light with his power, and wiggled backwards until they were touching again.

 

Hux regarded him silently, seeing him just as well in the dark. 

 

“Hux,” Kylo said, still turned away from him, “I know it’s probably boring to be in all night, watching me sleep, but don’t go into the forest without me, okay?”

 

Softening, Hux bent sideways to place a kiss to Kylo’s temple. “Alright.”

 

-

 

“I thought you said I shouldn’t go into the forest.” Hux huffed, crossing his arms in a childish display. Kylo really always brought out the worst in him. 

 

“Without me, I said. And I’m going. So stop whining and put on your hiking boots.”

 

“It isn’t dark yet,” Hux replied, clearly whining. 

 

“By the mother, sundown is in one hour, you’ll be fine. I know that, I’ve seen you do it.” Kylo hopped around on one foot as he pulled pants on.

 

Hux watched him, trying not to be amused. “I’m surprised you won’t be running around naked.”

 

Looking at him incredulously, Kylo got his other foot in the pant leg. “Are you kidding? The ticks out there can be murder if you walk through the wrong section. I’m a wolf, not insect-proof.”

 

Sighing in defeat, Hux dropped back onto the bed so he could reach his shoes that Kylo had helpfully (irritatingly) placed at the edge for him. “Sucks for you. What are we going out there for anyways?”

 

“To pay respects.”

 

Hux decided not to press.

 

The trek through the forest was long, but the thickness of the canopy was enough that Hux found plenty of shade, and soon he forgot it was still daytime. This forest was quite dry, being at the bottom and climbing up the slopes of the mountain northeast of the house, and the calm but chill air that hung in between the trunks was a clear sign of how far out they were from civilization.

 

They walked for an hour, without a path but Kylo appeared sure of the way. Hux spent the time observing the natural differences of the forest as compared to their home forest. There were more pines here, towering and silent, and they crunched over dried needles as opposed to the larger leaves that layered the ground back home. 

 

As night fell at a steady pace, the hum of nighttime creatures began to fill the air. Chirps of grasshoppers, owls hooting softly in the distance, the occasional rustle of something in the underbrush around them. Kylo paused several times, sniffing the air in large lungfuls with his lips slightly parted, and finally stopped their trek in what looked to be the same patch of forest as everywhere else. 

 

“What are--”

 

Kylo reached a hand out, giving Hux a look over his shoulder that said ‘Hush.’ Hux obeyed. He then looked up.

 

A tree, sprawling and of a species that Hux did not know, stretched up above them. The trunk had to be wider than three full arm’s widths could stretch around, and swirling up the side facing them was an intricate design of symbols and pictures carved into the wood. Near chest level was a knot that bulged out, maybe once a branch long removed and scarred over, that held a pale yellow candle on its uneven surface. The tree was clearly not deterred from growth by the carvings into its skin, its interior shining white wood, rather it had a mass of leaves in its canopy of a dark green in a vaguely maple shape. Hux couldn’t tell, as none of the leaves were on the ground around them.

 

“This is an altar to the mother spirit. Our ancestors created it, my mother maintains it. Only women are allowed to.”

 

Hux waited, but when Kylo said no more he spoke. “That seems narrow minded.” He said, echoing the hush in Kylo’s voice.

 

Kylo shrugged a shoulder. “They are connected to the mother more deeply. Men are akin to an outlet for power, women are a conduit. It’s different. I'm sure if a male were dedicated enough, they could. It just hasn’t happened here.”

 

“So why are we here?”

 

“To pay respects. I can’t be on her earth, so close, and ignore it. Also, she may bless...me, with some token I can use.”

 

At this, Kylo dropped the hand he had aimed at Hux, and turned to the altar proper. He ignited the candle with a spark from his fingertip and folded down to sit on his legs in front of the tree, the bare earth under his shins and gnarled roots nearly encircling him. With a look about and an expression of suffering confusion, Hux settled down beside him. 

 

“Close your eyes, breathe even, and free your mind. She makes no demands, only honest intent, whatever it is. She is neither good nor evil, she just exists as we all do, or can. Imperfect, beautiful, and balanced.”

 

Huffing a short breath, Hux attempted to follow Kylo’s instruction. After a few seconds, he said, voice tentative, “She would accept me?”

 

Kylo opened his eyes, looked at Hux sideways. He looked almost pitying. “Of course. You’re alive, Hux, and your soul is with you. That’s all that matters.”

 

Giving Kylo a furrowed brow of uncertainty, he closed his eyes again. 

 

Time passed, quiet. The area of their hearing seemed to close in to only a circle that encompassed them both, and even that was muted and soft. Only their heightened awareness let them know they were still together, and in real space. 

 

Hux felt something settle atop his hair, with almost no weight, and without meaning to, came back to himself. His hand reached up and grasped the stem of a leaf. Pulling it to eye level, he noted the veins were purple and sparsely branched across the leaf’s surface. Kylo held a leaf of his own, but his had a small cluster of acorns and small purple flowers at the base of the leaf. It had been impossible to see them from below, even with their night vision. Kylo held a mostly straight piece of branch in his other hand. 

 

“See?” Kylo mumbled, pulling his small pack off his back. He acquired a notebook from it and a cloth baggie, which he deposited his items into. He reached out for Hux’s leaf, who handed it over, and Kylo carefully pressed it between the pages for safekeeping. “She accepted you. She gave you a gift. You are no different.”

 

Hux looked at the ground, rubbing dirt between his fingers, then back up into the branches of the tree. He said nothing. 

 

They exited the forest in silence. 

 

-

 

Turning the corner that would lead them to the side of the house, Kylo suddenly grabbed Hux’s arm and pulled him aside, making a much sharper turn. Before Hux could gasp out his surprise, he was spun around and pressed none too gently against the wide trunk of a towering oak. 

 

Kylo’s hands shifted from his wrist to his hips, holding them steady as he pushed them together. Hux’s arrested gasp finally stuttered out of his body feeling Kylo’s erection against him. 

 

“W-what are you doing?” The side of the house was in plain view if Hux simply tipped his head to the right, and he did so nervously.

 

“Mm, all that meditation got me energized.”

 

“We are not doing this out here.” Hux said, but shuddered as Kylo’s fingers slipped under the waistband of his pants, gripping his hipbones. 

 

“You’d rather the house?”

 

“I’d rather  _ nowhere _ , you--”

 

Kylo cut him off with a kiss that garbled up whatever else Hux was about to say. He huffed and kissed back, unable to deny Kylo even that. As their feet shifted Hux heard the crunch of leaves under them and winced. “Really Kylo, the house is  _ right there-- _ ”

 

After being cut off a second time, he huffed angrily, grabbing Kylo by the shirt and using some of his unnatural strength to drag him to the side and flip their positions, hiding them further from the house. “Don’t be difficult.”

 

“I’m always difficult.” Kylo replied. His necklace, today a glass vial with some sort of substrate and plant bits mixed inside, glinted in the weak moonlight that filtered through the canopy. 

 

“You are,” Hux sighed, but pulled Kylo close. He lined up their hips and rolled his, earning a happy little sigh from his partner. “For some reason I tolerate you anyways.”

 

Kylo reached to the vial and popped it off, the cork dangling from the cord. He muttered a few words in whatever language he used doing magic, and tossed the contents to the earth below them. The zing of magic filled the air around them, and settled like a slight weight on their shoulders. He recorked the bottle.

Before Hux could inquire, Kylo said “Suppression spell for sound. We should just sound like leaves in the wind.”

 

“Should?”

 

Kylo didn’t answer, instead slipped his hand between them and down the front of Hux’s pants. He rubbed his palm gently against Hux who groaned softly. 

 

“I can’t believe you...had that ready.”

 

Kylo grinned and unbuckled his pants.

 

-

 

The next day was spent lounging around the house, idly chatting and watching nature from the porch. On a whim Hux observed, for what was meant to be a short time that somehow turned into hours as Kylo went into the large field that serviced as a front lawn, picking wildflowers and setting them into a bag he’d borrowed from his mother. He watched as Kylo then wove some of those flowers together into a crown, in shifting shades of white and yellow and purple, and set it upon Hux’s brow. Hux rolled his eyes, and Kylo smiled. 

 

He then watched, tucked comfortably out of the way of the afternoon sun that slanted across the wood floor, as Kylo shifted and ran around the lawn, rolling in the grass and snuffling at the ground, chasing the errant bee that had the audacity to get too close. He never caught one, and Hux had the suspicion that he wasn’t really trying. Eventually, Hux dozed off, and Kylo curled up near his feet. Kylo watched the sun fade into the horizon until it was no longer visible past the treeline, then stood, shaking out his coat. The tremors against his leg woke Hux, who breathed deeply before opening his eyes.

 

“You love it here don’t you.” Hux mumbled, shifting the knitted blanket further down his chest as he sat up. 

 

_ Yeah, I guess. _

 

Over time, their conversational ability while Kylo was a wolf had strengthened, and now whole sentences could be understood from Kylo to Hux through Kylo’s mental projections. Neither was sure who was doing it, if Kylo was getting better at projecting or Hux was getting better at understanding, but it didn’t much matter. 

 

“I can see why, it’s very calming.”

 

_ See it during a storm, you’ll reconsider. This place is wild still.  _

 

“Would you want to stay here?” Hux looked away from the lawn and forest beyond and back to Kylo’s darkly furred face.

 

Kylo’s eyes widening was comical and so very human.  _ No, gods, no. It’s home, but I like  _ our _ home. I have enough forest there too. But there’s an energy here that I can’t deny.  _

 

“That’s alright.” Hux placed a hand on Kylo’s head and scratched behind his ears softly. “But you could tell me if you did.”

 

Kylo snapped his jaws in an expression of irritation that Hux had come to know well. Then, he huffed. Hux smiled wryly. “Alright, I know when to stop. I’m being moody, it must be the air.” 

 

_ I know somewhere we can go. _

 

Kylo shifted back once they were inside their room, and packed them a quick bag. Hux caught a flash of synthetic fabric. “Is that the bathing suits?”

 

“Maybe.”

 

As they stepped out of the room and down the hall, Hux caught a figure out of the corner of his eye, down the hallway opposite them. Leia lingered against the doorframe, watching them with eyes that held a sense of  _ knowing _ . She also looked disapproving, or maybe critical of him. Hux quickly looked away, striding after Kylo with embarrassment stiffing his movements. 

 

Kylo drove, and when they cleared the trees Hux sighed. “The beach. Again.”

 

“But it’s dark now! Trust me.” Kylo parked before the dunes and pushed open the driver's door with a sense of excitement. He hurried around to Hux’s side and pulled the door open. Hux stared at him from the seat. 

 

Kylo crossed his arms. “C’mon. Or do you want me to carry you?”

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

“What? You’ve carried me before. I’m just evening the field.” Kylo reached out, and Hux recoiled. 

 

“No! I will not get covered in sand again! Kylo!”

 

Having none of it, Kylo scooped up Hux under the legs and Hux had no choice but to grab around his neck to stop from toppling sideways. Triumphantly Kylo bumped him up further, pushing the bag higher on his arm, and kicked the door closed. Hux was swept away from the car by Kylo’s loping strides. He clutched close to Kylo’s shoulders, watching the shoreline coming closer. “Kylo, don’t you dare dump me in the ocean--!”

 

Upending the direction of the ground, Kylo placed him swiftly on something that was certainly not sand. Kylo was huffing deep breaths, the air pushed onto Hux’s face in warm puffs. Hux looked around. They were on the edge of the beach, just feet away from where the waves rushed furthest up the sand, and Hux was perched on what seemed to be a large cabana, the dark cover halfway up and protecting him from the worst of the wind coming from the north. Kylo stood next to the corner, toes digging into the sand and looking triumphant. His chest still heaved as Hux eyed him. 

 

“Tired?”

 

“No,” Kylo retorted, but there was no fire in it. “I’ve been running a lot.” He furrowed his brow, seeing Hux’s amused eyebrow raise. “Shut up, you’re heavier than you look. And I’m on sand!”

 

“Hmm,” Hux looked down at his nails, rounded but deceptively strong, “and here I thought you had no trouble. I suppose you should stop picking me up during sex then, I wouldn’t want to be too much for you.”

 

Kylo growled, leaning down to grab Hux by the calves. “Maybe I should dump you in the ocean.”

 

“You wouldn’t.”

 

“Watch me.” Kylo quirked a small cocky grin, and yanked. Hux, with nowhere to go but either around Kylo’s hips or on his ass in the sand, chose the former. He gripped hard by the knees, digging into Kylo’s hipbones, and swung himself up to grab around Kylo’s neck again.

 

“This is getting quite tiring!” Hux complained loudly, then leaned in close Kylo’s ear and hissed, “I swear Kylo, if you put me in that water you are going with me.”

 

“Oh no,” Kylo drawled, “what a threat.” Then he spun them around and marched into the waves. 

 

Squirming violently, Hux kicked his heels hard into the back of Kylo’s thighs, but Kylo’s hands held a strong grip on his ass. Kylo chuckled. “Be a shame if you kept doing that.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Hux did it again, heels smacking just above the knees. Without warning Kylo’s knees buckled, and with a shout from Hux they splashed into the waist-deep water.

 

It was warm, but with just enough of an edge of chill that Hux came up gasping, hair dripping onto his nose and down his cheeks. Kylo looked much the same, his normally voluminous mane stuck to his neck and eyes. Hux smothered a laugh. 

 

Kylo glared playfully. “You don’t really need to breathe do you?” As Hux gaped, Kylo dived under, and Hux felt a tug on his ankles. He yelled wordlessly, kicking out, but another tug and he was under.

 

Kylo wrapped him up tight in his arms, holding them under. Opening his eyes, Hux saw Kylo looking back from only an inch away, the moonlight barely piercing the dark water enough to see even that far. Hux pushed out his remaining air into bubbles that popped and slid around Kylo’s face, who laughed reflexively. Panicked at his own stupid loss of air, he brought them to the surface. 

 

He came up sputtering, while Hux laughed openly once they breached the surface. “You’re wrong,” he said between laughs, “I do need to breathe, but certainly not as often as you. Good job, dear.”

 

“Oh stuff it,” Kylo said, a pout on his features. He grabbed Hux up again and was not rebuked. For a moment they floated together, just far enough from the waves’ break line to be rocked back and forth gently rather than with force. 

 

“I thought your kind didn’t like running water.” 

 

They had fallen into the habit of saying ‘your kind’ or simply skirting around the words in general when speaking to one another about their abilities. It was intelligent in case, gods forbid, there were prying ears about, and also dampened the blow that came with the remembered knowledge that they were not the same. Besides, there wasn’t really one word for what Kylo was, he just  _ was. _

 

Hux sighed. “You can say vampire, Kylo. Your mother does.” The statement came out vaguely bitter, and Kylo pulled him closer. 

 

“I don’t care what my mother does. You gonna answer me or not?”

 

“Well obviously that isn’t true. Also all natural water is technically running, so that myth makes no sense. It does suppress my senses somewhat.”

 

“It is true! She has no power over what I do. She’ll get over it, believe me.”

 

“I just wish I would have known it was going to be a problem.”

 

“I know.” Kylo nuzzled his nose into Hux’s neck, holding his breath as his face dipped under the water. 

 

After a silent few minutes, listening to the roar of the moving ocean in their ears as the appendages sat under the surface, they swam out. Hux picked carefully over the shells that gathered up just before the shoreline while Kylo tromped through without a second glance. All the forest running, in wolf form and otherwise, had given him startlingly thick soles. The cabana was waiting for them, the wide blue cushion dark and inviting, but Hux stood beside it, staring down as his sopping wet clothes. 

 

Without pause, Kylo stripped out of his clothes, dropping them onto the sand. He shook out his hair, and Hux flinched away with a scowl. Kylo laughed, and flopped himself onto the cushion, nude once again. He held out his arms for Hux to crawl into. 

 

“I won’t bite.”

 

“Yes you will.” Hux snapped. “The issue is that I don’t have another set of clothes and  _ I _ don’t have a convenient furred form to run around in.”

 

“I’ll wrap you in a towel or something, stop complaining and get over here.”

 

Hux sighed with full dramaticism, and disrobed. He took the time to wring them out and fold them, setting them on the corner of the cabana. He looked at Kylo pointedly as the other man fidgeted. 

 

He finally crawled on, finding a perfect spot against Kylo’s chest and cuddling into it. His normally cool skin was truly cold in the night air, and Kylo jerked in shock before settling, wrapping himself as far around Hux as possible to warm him again. 

 

The peace could not last. Kylo’s hands began to wander, first gently rubbing up and down the center line of Hux’s chest, then ghosting over his nipples. 

 

“Can I help you?” Hux asked. 

 

“Certainly can.” Kylo rumbled, face buried in Hux’s neck again. His cock was pressed firmly to Hux’s back, demanding attention in little throbs that sent zings of excitement up Hux’s spine. 

 

Hux shuffled around to face Kylo. “And why should I do that? So far you’ve done nothing but things I have protested to. I’m not sure you deserve a reward...more like a punishment.” Reaching down in the cramped space between them, Hux lightly pinched the skin around the head of Kylo’s cock. Kylo whined. 

 

“Anything.”

 

“As you say.” Hux smirked, and scooted down the cushion until his lips pressed easily against Kylo’s reddened erection. They didn’t do this often, Hux normally concerned about accidentally hurting Kylo in the heat of the moment. But Kylo angled his hips further forward and well, wasn’t this supposed to be a punishment?

 

He let the head slide past his teeth, trying to fit it carefully between his canines. His teeth were generally sharp, but more in that they were thin, and his fangs did all the difficult work. Still, even retracted his fangs were wickedly pointed, but tucked close enough to his incisors that people didn’t notice. As he pushed down further, he felt the edges catch on the sides of Kylo’s shaft, and he wiggled his head for a better fit, tongue swiping along the underside.

 

Kylo groaned, threading the fingers of one hand deeply into Hux’s hair. “Fuck, perfect.”

 

Holding his breath certainly came in handy in these situations, as Hux undulated his tongue and hollowed his cheeks, sucking softly. Kylo liked to be built up, and Hux was going to deliver, whether the other man wanted him to or not. 

 

A few minutes into his ministrations, now moving up and down in a way that caught his teeth every time and made Kylo whine, said whiner began tugging at his hair, having nothing else to grab onto. With reluctance and care, Hux pulled away. “What?”

 

“Want you.” 

 

“You’ve already got me, you silly wolf.”

 

Kylo grumbled low in his chest, Hux felt it through his fingers. In reply, he dug their strong nails into Kylo’s hips. Kylo squirmed. 

“Use your words.” Hux admonished, and Kylo huffed, lifting up to lean on his elbows. 

 

“You know what I want.” Kylo’s eyes glinted with a greenish sheen as they left the cover of the cabana for a moment. Hux’s heart tried to skip several beats, which was impressive given how slow it beat normally. 

 

He licked his lips. “There are a few options, none of which are intelligent to attempt on a beach.” 

 

Dropping his head back with a frustrated groan, Hux heard Kylo’s voice drift over. “Want it all.”

 

“You physically cannot have it all.” 

 

Before Hux could even begin to sass more, hands shot out, grabbing Hux under the arms and dragging him up Kylo’s body. Hux nipped him hard at his jaw and lapped quickly over the blood that welled from the wound after Kylo yelped. “I actually didn’t mean to, I--”

 

Kylo’s eyes were almost black with lust. “Now.”

 

Unusually cowed into acquiescence, Hux finally shimmied the rest of the way up, got his legs under him, and straddled Kylo’s hips. Clamping fingers found their way to his thighs. They had barely more than spit and patience to make this work, but what was the point of a rapid healing factor if you couldn’t use it to build up an insanely high pain tolerance and make stupid decisions?

 

It took a liberal application of both, and the tiny tears that opened and healed repeatedly along the way had Hux staring into the middle distance by the time he was fully seated, gasping with arousal and pain. He had scratched a mosaic of his nails into Kylo’s chest, but the witch didn’t appear to mind if his pleasured noises were any indication. His grip had become bruising with his effort not to push roughly up into Hux’s waiting heat. 

 

They began to move slowly together, a careful rhythm that did not remove Kylo’s cock fully nor jerk Hux around unnecessarily. Their breathing became synchronized, punctuated with little moans and whines and curses. After all their waiting, it wasn’t long until Kylo broke. 

 

“Hux, Hux, Hux, I can’t keep this up,”

 

“I know,” Hux replied quickly, “me too.”

 

Kylo released his grip, letting Hux take over their movement. His hands snaked up, tweaking Hux’s nipples along the way and eliciting a small cry, wrapping around the back of Hux’s neck and tugging him down. Hux buried his face in the crook of Kylo’s neck and breathed in. “We shouldn’t,” he sighed. 

 

“I want to. Please. You won’t get sick this time.”

 

That was likely very true. Kylo had done very minimal magic recently, and had been running his wolf around for what practically amounted to two straight days now. If there were a better time, Hux couldn’t fathom it. The temptation was too strong to deny. 

 

He shifted enough to kiss Kylo thoroughly and when Kylo finally broke away for air, turning his head to the side, there wasn’t going to be a better moment. Piercing through his skin was brutal and wonderful and when Kylo screamed, to anyone in the forest it likely just sounded like a wolf howling to the moon. 

 

-

 

The bruising was really spectacular in the morning light. A mottled purple and blue, a few dark moles peeking through, a distant galaxy with two red planets in the middle, like a binary system. Hux laughed quietly to himself, and then felt the sun on his legs. 

 

With a high pitched curse, he yanked his legs away from the burning feeling and scrambled up into full cover of the cabana. Kylo stirred next to him and cried out in frustration when Hux started slapping him in the chest right over the scratches from the prior night.

 

“Ow, that hurts, Hux, what?”

 

“ _ What _ is that it is broad daylight and I am stranded on a  _ beach _ !”

 

“Wait, what the shit--oh.”

 

“Yes,” Hux spat viciously, “ _ oh _ .”

 

Kylo was blinking in the bright late-morning light, sat up and fully in the sunlight. The yellow and blue glow cast from the cabana cover turned the bruise a sickly color, no longer fantastical. Hux felt vaguely ill though he had a hunch that the feeling didn’t originate from the blood he’d taken. 

 

“Wow, it is fuckin’ bright,” Kylo grumbled, scratching his face. The salt from the ocean had dried in the cool night air and had made for spectacular dry skin, not to mention the sand that had somehow found its way into a fine layer across their legs and arms. 

 

Hux scoffed angrily, “You think?”

 

Twisting around, Kylo shot him a glare. He was always grumpy in the morning, or rather whenever he woke up, and it had cause more than one spat. “It’s not the end of the world, Hux.”

 

A derisive laugh slipped between Hux’s lips. “Okay, sure, easy for you to say when you aren't surrounded by the one thing that can kill you!”

 

“More than one thing can kill you.”

 

“Not the point!” Hux shrieked. 

 

“Holy shit!” Kylo exclaimed, exasperated as he stood from the cabana. Sand flaked off his bronzed skin. “Calm the fuck down! I’ll just drive the car over here.”

 

-

 

The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon was painfully awkward. Even Leia, despite her blatantly obvious disapproval of Hux, could tell something was off enough to leave them be. She served Kylo a quiet breakfast, and whispered something in his ear before walking away into one of the many rooms of the cottage. Maybe one day it would be nice to explore them all, but both men were currently too angry to go on a proper tour. 

 

Kylo had taken to removing the bark from and whittling the branch he had gotten from the mother tree. The two leaves, giant and still perfectly colored, sat crossed at the stems by his hip. The purple flowers on Kylo’s had not yet faded. 

 

Hux sat, huddled in a corner of the porch in a sturdy cushioned armchair and wrapped in the quilt from the bed, tapping away on his tablet. With how often he looked up to Kylo, it was unlikely he was getting any work done. They would relent and forgive each other eventually, but long lived beings like themselves tended to hold onto lover’s spats for more than a few hours. 

 

A few times, Kylo had gotten up and gone into the house, returning minutes later with little bottles and sacks that he lined up in front of him. He was probably going to try a spell on the branch, but it was unlikely he would want to in front of Hux at the moment, at least it seemed that way.

 

The assumption was proven wrong after four long and silent hours, when Kylo started muttering to himself. Reflexively, Hux peeked over his tablet again. Kylo had started sprinkling little bits of liquids and what might have been herbs over the now intricately carved stick, and a weight began to form in the air. It was like a heat wave minus temperature, just fluctuations of pressure that increased incrementally with each push towards Hux. 

 

As the weight grew, so did the speed of Kylo’s chanting. Hux watched as the words got to almost a fever pitch, still quiet but intense, the weight grew to an uncomfortable lead blanket feeling, and then it was over. Just like that, the feelings vanished, silence reigned again. The stick looked the same. 

 

“That’s it?” Hux couldn’t help himself.

 

“Did you expect fireworks?” Kylo couldn’t either, but made an angry sound at his own weakness while he snatched up the stick and presumably magical ingredients. He looked to be ready to stomp back in the house, but shot another little glare at Hux before he turned. 

 

Suddenly, a breeze kicked up. It was more abrupt than those that regularly blew through the meadow at random, and Hux clutched at his blanket to keep it from blowing away. 

 

Kylo had already stepped into the relative cover of the doorway, so he wasn’t privy to what happened next. The wind shot through the meadow, pressing the tall stalks aside in a wide, winding line, and once it reached the middle, square in front of the house, there was a blast of air that flattened the plants in a several foot radius. When Hux uncovered his face from the dirt that threatened to land in his eyes, there was a man in the clearing center. He was average height and build, but his silvery white hair was thick and striking against the backdrop of green and brown, and his eyes were a very clear blue that matched the cloudless sky. 

 

The man obviously looked at Hux, sneered, his nostrils flaring, and turned back to the doorway in the span of a few seconds. 

 

“Ben!”

 

Kylo froze. Slowly, he turned around.

 

“Hi, Dad.”

 

“ _ Dad?” _

 

Kylo’s father glanced at Hux again, a sharp glare on his soft face. “Ben, tell me what this creature is doing here.”

 

That was enough for Hux. The day had been bad enough so far, but ‘creature’ was over the line. Tension snapped in the air around Hux as he stood up, the blanket falling to the wood floor. “ _ Excuse _ me? As far as I knew, I was a guest!”

 

Incredulous eyebrows raised in shock. “Guest? You got near my wife?”

 

“Father, that is enough!” Kylo yelled. 

 

“You will listen to me, Ben,”

 

“My name is not Ben!”

 

“I don’t care,” replied Kylo’s father, beginning to take measured steps through the grass towards the house, and therefore closer to the pair. “He leaves, now. He isn’t welcome here.”

 

“Ah, well, at least I’m a ‘he’.” Hux spat with full sarcasm, waving his arms for emphasis. It appeared that was the wrong move to make. Kylo’s father snapped his gaze to Hux again, looking at his arms, paused with a gasp, growled, and then a transparent blur was flying at his face. 

 

Thankfully, Kylo got in the way first. There was a snapping sound like a whip crack, and the blur was flung away to the other end of the porch. Kylo had his newly-imbued stick held in front of him longways and it glowed faintly. 

 

Kylo twisted and pressed the stick, or maybe wand, into Hux’s hands. “Draw a circle on the floor and don’t leave it.”

 

“Kylo, this is--”

 

“Do it!”

 

The tone of Kylo’s voice was more desperate than it had been when the hunter had broken into their home. Hux hastened to follow the direction, dragging the tip of the wand around him as he turned. There was a high pitched hum when the circle closed. 

 

Kylo put his hand out towards Hux, and seemed to meet resistance. He spread his fingers as if to a window. “Trust me.” He said, and turned away. 

 

Hux watched as the human form of Kylo melted away and the wolf remained. It seemed bigger, fur standing on end. He growled and paced carefully towards the shifting, silver wind still down on the other end. 

 

It shot at Kylo and he reacted beautifully, vaulting over the porch steps and into the lawn, skidding over the grass and sending the reproductive labors of several flowers off into the still-strong breeze. The man made of wind followed, moving quickly down and into the tall green where it seemed to disappear. Kylo looked solidly forward and waited. The area went quiet.

 

With a roaring upkick in the breeze around them, his father struck from the side, jumping several feet above the dark wolf and coming down like a bird on its prey. Kylo’s muzzle twisted up, grabbed some measure of the witch above him in strong jaws, then yanked down. The wind slammed into the ground, and the house yawned in the resulting gust. As Hux watched, the transparency flickered, and he could vaguely make out the shape of a silvery wolf. Hux looked around. Why had Leia not shown herself?

 

Kylo had jumped back from the other wolf, springing around more like a coyote than a proper wolf, and shifted back into a man. “Han, listen to me! He’s fine!”

 

A rumbling voice came from the wind, like Zeus from a thundercloud. “You don’t know that. He is a threat. And you give him your promise? You betray us!”

 

“He isn’t! You don’t know him!” Kylo’s voice was deep and rough.

 

The wind wolf picked himself up off the ground. “Don’t make me do this, Ben,” he intoned.

 

“I will protect Hux.” Kylo said, and bared his teeth. 

 

“Fine.” The wind said, and attacked again. With a full body motion, Kylo pushed his arms to the side, and Han went flying away from him again. This happened a couple more times until Han seemed to shudder and burst into many small currents of wind, trying to come at Kylo from all sides. 

 

At this Kylo leapt forward, shifting as he rolled, and came up into a howl. The trees shook not from the wind but as if someone were jostling their trunks, rapid and violent. Vines shot up from the ground to catch the other wolf by his transparent limbs. Han snarled with rage, and as he did so the air rumbled with what seemed like thunder. 

 

This was going too far, and Hux readied himself to step out of the circle and run to help. 

 

Nature went against its natural order, as lightning crackled down the vines, crisping them to nothing instantly. Kylo howled again, calling up more as clouds darkened over the sun and sky, creating a feeling of twilight. It was clear that Kylo wasn’t trying to hurt his father, but the same was difficult to say for Han. 

 

When the silver wolf broke his bonds again and shot lightning towards Kylo, Hux stepped out. He ran into the lawn, brandishing the wand, eyes glowing again with green fire. 

 

“ _ Stop.” _

 

The silver wolf froze. He became more solid to the eye, and his ears twitched angrily as they sat flattened back on his head. Kylo shifted back and stared at Hux, awed.

 

_ “Stay where you are.”  _ Han did not move.  _ “Listen.” _

 

Still holding the wand forward, Hux dropped the suggestion from his voice. “I don’t know where Leia is, but she allowed me into your house. If I had known you would disapprove so vehemently, I wouldn’t have come. Kylo left me under the impression I was welcome. I will leave peacefully.” He looked at Kylo. “You need to come with me. I won’t leave you here to violence. You can speak to your parents over the phone, through messenger pigeon, whatever, I don’t care.”

 

Kylo opened his mouth to speak, but a burst of light blinded them momentarily. As Hux clutched at his eyes, Kylo caught his breath in what seemed like relief.

 

“Mom--”

 

“Quite enough!” She said, and Hux flinched in surprise at her nearness. “I knew I shouldn’t have left. I go to tend the tree for a few hours and I come back to this? Half the forest was shrieking at your blatant misuse of your gifts!” 

 

Kylo sidled closer to Hux, putting a careful hand on his shoulder as he pulled his palms away from his eyes. They were an angry red in the sclera, like he’d been up for days. Leia whirled on them, glowing with a pure light. “You! I told you to talk to him. What did you think he was gonna do, seeing that bracelet?”

 

Kylo had the presence of mind to look abashed. 

 

_ “And you! _ ” She screeched at her husband, her glow flaring for a moment. “How  _ dare _ you fight with our son. Have you ever learned to use your brain, you idiot? Clearly I’ve been here, and I have not felt threatened by the  _ lone vampire our son is in love with. _ Get over yourself!”

 

Han whined and grumbled. He still had not moved from his spot, practically rooted to the ground by vines and Hux’s words. Above, the clouds receded, and the sun began to shine again. In the tension of the moment, no one seemed concerned that there was a nude young man in the conversation.

 

“Ah, ma’am,” Leia turned and glared, “Leia, sorry, it’s simply that you are bright? And the sun is coming back out. I don’t want to instigate anything further but I need to move.”

 

Leia’s expression morphed into embarrassment. “Oh, I didn’t even think, yes go, back under the porch with you.” 

 

Hux moved carefully away from the family, and then sprinted the last few feet under the porch. “Leia?” He called.

 

“Yes?” 

 

“Well, I’m not sure exactly what I did, so if you’d like your husband released, I’m afraid I’m not sure what to do.”

 

Kylo snorted. “Release the spell.” 

 

Despite fearing for his lover’s life moments before, he was still annoyed. “Maybe explain, Kylo, as I’m obviously not a witch.”

 

Leia tsk’d at her son, but Kylo rolled his eyes and kept going. “The wand is for enhancement of spellcasting. Anyone with inner talent can do magic, and you’re obviously already able, you just didn’t see it that way. The mother spirit did. So lift up the wand,” Kylo pointed to it, still clutched in Hux’s hand, “and let go of the spell.”

 

“ _ What _ spell?” Pressed Hux, still obstinate.

 

Kylo threw his hands up. “The mind control, you--”

 

“Hush!” Leia demanded, and Kylo fell silent with a frustrated rumble from his chest. 

 

Hux scrunched his nose at Kylo, then pointed the wand. “Okay. I’m done?” He tried to put forth the feeling of something relaxing, like a clasp or a knot, and the weight settled over him that he hadn’t even noticed until then, left. Han lurched forward, balance thrown off, and bumped his snout into Leia’s hip. She gave him a deadpan stare. 

 

“If you even think about bothering that man again I will restrain you myself.” Though Leia was a short and not exactly bulky woman, the threat did not feel like a bluff. Han melted like cascading water into a human figure again, who then crossed his arms over his chest. 

 

Han sniffed. “I don’t understand it. He’s been gone only a few years and he beds down with one of those?” 

 

Kylo gave an annoyed, “Hey!” while Leia snapped, “His name is Hux. Use it, or leave. Despite his condition he is still a person. I don't understand it either, excuse me Hux but it is the truth as I’m sure you know, however he is our son's choice and we must support them.”

 

Han growled lightly. Leia smacked him on the arm. “Besides,” she said curiously, “Kylo, did you say something about the mother tree?”

 

Spotlight back on him, Kylo snapped back to full attention. “Yes. The mother even gave him this.” He moved back to the porch, removing Hux’s leaf from under his and presenting it to his parents. “I wouldn’t bring someone home without planning to vet them, which I was  _ trying _ to tell you before you tried to  _ attack _ him.”

 

Now it was Han’s turn to look embarrassed. “I can’t argue with your mother, either of them. I still don’t like it, but I’m sorry for...yeah. You can stay.”

 

Hux very obviously stifled down a rude laugh. “I believe I should say thank you, but I don’t think that’s really a necessity given you probably just tried to kill me. You know your son gets that from you? Act first, ask later? He almost killed me too.”

 

Han raised his eyebrows again, and Kylo shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. “That was a misunderstanding…”

 

“Fact remains,” Hux said, amused, while Leia gave her son a disapproving stare. 

 

Leia continued after a paused moment for everyone to feel appropriately guilty. “Well, moving forward is what we have now. Hux, I understand you are here on leave from work?”

 

Hux looked puzzled. “Yes?”

 

“I know this hasn’t been the perfect vacation, but I’d like to extend our hospitality for a few more days. You can learn a bit more about us, and now that Han is around,” she paused again, waiting for her husband to argue but he stayed silent, “we can properly learn about you. The way it should be. Do you have the time?”

 

Her offer wasn’t so much a suggestion as opposed to a notice of intent. With how tense things were at the moment, leaving in the morning would likely not be wise in the mind of future interactions. “I can...contact the hospital. I have a couple more days available.”

 

“Wonderful.” Leia put her hands together, then took both of her men by the arms. “Then let’s all go inside and chat while we start dinner.”

 

In the wake of Leia’s light and strength, the boys followed.

 

-

 

“Kylo,”

 

“Mm?”

 

They laid in bed together at dusk the next day, one of the only times in which they were both sleepy and lazily cuddled. It was difficult sometimes, having entirely opposite living schedules, but it had easier moments. 

 

“I didn’t know you or your family were so powerful. I feel a little silly now.”

 

“Pfft,” Kylo replied elegantly, rolling over to drape an arm across Hux’s belly. “Don’t. Our powers are almost entirely useless in the modern world. I can create little charms and track events by the moon, but I can’t really influence the world without outing myself. You’re powerful in a different way. You managed to stop my father, which is fairly impressive. Anyways, our family is...old. And strong. But also dying out, you won’t find many other like us. I’m a bit jealous of how many of you there can be.”

 

“But we’re generally solitary,” Hux sighed, “and so dependant.” 

 

“Different types, I guess. I wouldn’t think to compare us.”

 

“I suppose it’s better to think of what we can do together.”

 

“Exactly.” Kylo kissed Hux on the shoulder, and in response he rolled so they were draping on each other. In short order they were a tangle of warm and cold limbs. 

 

They laid in silence a moment, then Hux spoke. “On another note,  _ Ben _ ,” Kylo cringed, “I feel you haven’t been totally honest with me about some things. Don’t think I wouldn't have noticed. You father tried to murder me over a  _ bracelet _ . My kind don’t have as much culture as you do, clearly, but I think I’ll be able to understand. So spill.”

 

Kylo groaned and flopped around a bit. “Maybe I wasn’t... _ totally _ transparent about what that meant.”

 

Holding it up to the weak remnants of sunlight through the curtains, the beads glinted. “What does it mean then?”

 

“It means what I said back when I gave it to you, but from one of us to the other...it’s kind of like proposing?”

 

_ “What? _ ” Hux spluttered, sitting up and completely throwing Kylo off of him in the process. “I was  _ not _ aware I was agreeing to marry you.”

 

“I mean, you aren’t, since you didn’t know what it was, and you aren’t a wolf. It’s more like mate bonding anyways. But you did reciprocate with a gift, which is customary when accepting, so now it's a little grey. There’s weight to it now.”

 

“You can’t wear a human heart.” Hux deadpanned, his right hand wrapped around the bracelet. 

 

“Well, that’s not really the point of the thing, but…” Kylo trailed off, his ears reddening. 

 

“Kylo…” Hux warned.

 

Sheepishly, Kylo reached over the side of the bed and rummaged in his bag. He pulled out another little bottle on a cord like most of his necklaces, the cork of this one waxed into the opening. Inside floated a cleanly cut piece of pale muscle shaped in a ring.

 

“Oh, come on! You should have said--did you even close the jar right afterwards?”

 

A laugh escaped Kylo despite the tension of the conversation. “That’s your concern? I know how things preserve.”

 

“I still, I can’t even,” Hux cut himself off, too flabbergasted to finish. If they had just gotten over one fight, this was threatening to spark a new one. 

 

Kylo sat up, shuffling around in his nudity to face the other man. “No, listen, it really only means something if I wear it. I haven’t put it on at all. I wanted to wait until after this trip, when I could broach the subject. I didn’t know how you’d react. I was nervous.”

 

“Obviously you would know if you had told me!”

 

Holding up his hands placatingly, the bottle dangled between his fingers. “I know, and I definitely fucked that up. But we’ve lived so long, and we have so long to go still, and this sort of thing isn’t meant to be broken with something like a human divorce. So I was going to bring it up, and then sort of set it aside until, if the day came, you wanted to agree. It isn’t exactly the customary order of events, but close enough.”

 

Hux let out a huge breath, rolling his eyes in an almost automatic gesture of annoyance. “‘Close enough’. So your father flipped out because he thought we were getting married? And he hates vampires? I would have been a little angry myself.”

 

“Oh no, he hates most other supernatural creatures.” Kylo waved his hand as if talking about any old thing rather than blatant speciesism. “He was wild for a long time before my mom got to him, and he had a lot of bad experiences in the world. Now he doesn’t really trust anything, even though he can’t seem to keep himself at home where he feels safe.” The last sentence sounded a bit bitter, and Hux pitied enough to put a hand on his knee, then retracted it. “Anyways, he would have probably flipped out on anyone. Humans aren’t good enough, other beings are dangerous, and there aren’t enough of our kind to go around. He just really dislikes vampires.”

 

“That makes me feel better.”

 

“But he’s okay now! Between my mom nudging him and your charms, we’ll win him over. He’s not so bad.”

 

That was somewhat true. Their conversations over the past day had been polite and slightly strained, but surprisingly honest. Underneath the wariness and anger, Han seemed like a good man. “Honestly, Kylo, at this point I’d just be happy to go home in one piece. We can deeply discuss this later, and we will, but it’s just...too much at the moment.”

 

“...yeah.” 

 

“Don’t be like that. You've put a lot in front of me. I need time to digest. If you think your family is slow to change, I’ve met vampires who still wear ruffled ascots! I am one of the most progressive I’ve ever known. Still, I can’t just suddenly agree to a bonding with you. We’ve only been together a few years. What if we grow tired of one another? What if your family doesn’t approve?”

 

“You think you’ll tire of me?” Kylo asked, wide-eyed and sincere. He didn’t seem offended, just confused. 

 

Hux backtracked. “Well no. I don’t want to assume either way. I don’t know.” Kylo was silent. “Stop looking at me like that. I just said my kind is solitary.”

 

“You aren’t like your kind though.”

 

“That’s not fair.”

 

“You said it first.” Kylo pointed out. “But I mean, I guess I understand. Wolves are built of packs, family units. We may stray, but we always come back, and I guess I thought I’d never tire of you because I’d already included you.”

 

Hux blinked at him dumbly, and slowly released the clutching grasp he had on the bracelet. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

 

Grinning slowly, Kylo’s look was a little like he was talking to someone who was deeply misinformed. “Hux, you know I love you, right?”

 

“I mean, I, well I assumed--”

 

Kylo laid his hand atop Hux’s. “Do you love me or not? I have a feeling I know which it is, but I need to hear it. I’m not asking for everything, you know. Just to stick around.”

 

Hux bit his lip. “I don’t want to disappoint you by not being what you expect.”

 

“I think we’ve seen the best and worst of one another already, but tell me if I’m wrong.”

 

Hux laughed shortly. “No, no you’re right.” He took a breath. “In that case, I do.”

 

“Do what?”

 

Hux grumbled before saying, “Love you.”

 

Kylo smiled again. “Was that so hard?”

 

“Shush.”

 

“So...does this mean you’ll think about it?”

 

“You really mean it, don’t you?” 

 

“Mean what? I love you?”

 

“No, the other thing.”

 

“Other thing?”

 

Hux smiled, finally, and gave Kylo a knowing look. 

 

Thankfully, they seemed to be past the embarrassment of their earlier days. Kylo didn’t blush but pursed his lips. “You are...gonna make me say it, aren’t you?  _ Fine _ , Hux, yes, I do mean about marrying me. I want you to let me put this on, and marry me.”

 

“Well,” Hux said, and tipped his head side to side. Abruptly he shot forward, colliding with Kylo and knocking him backwards. Thankfully the bed was large enough to accommodate the length of their bodies. Hux kissed him soundly as Kylo wrapped his arms around the thinner waist, trapping them together. 

 

When they broke apart Hux raised an eyebrow. “You’d have to tell your parents this time.”

 

Kylo groaned. 

 

-

 

“Against my better judgment,” Han said, as Leia elbowed him, “B--Kylo is an adult and can make his own decisions.”

 

“It’s good he doesn’t really need your blessing, then,” Leia said with a grin that harkened back to her younger years. “Dear, the mother spirit blessed you, so therefore I see no issue. Will you be having the ceremony here?”

 

Kylo pinked around the ears. “Ah, no,” Leia’s face darkened, and so did the light outside. They were all seated on the porch, as Hux insisted. They could make a quick getaway if things went south. “What I mean is, we won’t be having one for a while. We want to get back home, take some time to settle back in, those things. So, after that, yeah.”

 

Really, what they had discussed, briefly, was that they would have one when Hux actually agreed. He still hadn’t given a definitive answer, and the necklace still sat in Kylo’s bag. It was easier to twist the facts than lay them all out and deal with the misunderstandings. This trip really had been stressful enough already. 

 

Leia, surprisingly, nodded. “You have time. Your father and I didn’t bond for years after we had begun courting.”

 

Han grunted an affirmative, but in the reluctant way one does when they don’t really want to be associated with something. He sat up straighter. “Not that it has ever really been my concern, but I’ll put it out there on behalf of your mother. What are your plans about the family line?”

 

Kylo made an ugly face. “Isn’t that what Rey and them are for?”

 

“Certainly not!” Leia said, scandalised, while simultaneously Han said “I  _ don’t _ think so!” 

 

Hux put a hand to his mouth. This is what families were, they had lines and ancestry and nothing that Hux was. Kylo reached out and held his other hand. 

 

“You listen to me, boy, this family is your legacy and you damn well better plan to continue it.” Han scolded. 

 

“Excuse me, if I could interrupt?” Hux asked, and all three looked to him. “Why wasn’t this a concern until just now? I am clearly male, and technically not virile.”

 

“Oh,” Leia waved a hand calmingly at him, “there are ways around all that.”

 

Hux looked confused and concerned, but Kylo rushed over him before he could ask. “True! Good, good to know that. But we still are taking time, which is why we are leaving, just as we’d planned. So. If everything is okay, we will just head out.” Their last day at Kylo’s family home had been relaxed, but neither of them had really been out of sight of either parent for very long and it was very much time to go to their own home.

 

As they drove out of the long drive, Kylo behind the wheel, though not for lack of trying on Hux’s part, Hux sighed. “Certainly not my most relaxing vacation.”

 

Kylo’s tense shoulders slumped. “Yeah, sorry…”

 

“But it was good.” Hux looked out of the window, chin propped on his hand. “The forests here are really something. I’d like to see how they look in autumn.”

 

Kylo looked at his lover, but Hux did not look back from the window. “Yeah. Okay. We can.”

 

-

 

Their tiny house was in one piece when they got back, and they stepped through the garage door with a sense of peace. Hux beelined for the jar over what once was the entertainment center. It had recently been turned into a true mantle, with the beginnings of a fireplace opening. Their landlord was quite hands off, and stated as long as they paid for the work and kept it legal, they could remodel. Kylo had decided to take advantage. He had recently built sitting windows into the sitting room, making it more true to its name, and was shopping for special UV blocking tint for all the house windows. The plants and forest remnants had begun to creep out of Kylo’s room, but Hux had replaced all the furniture with more modern styled, yet still comfortable, furnishings, and was working on replacing all the appliances, and was planning to cut a portion of his bedroom into a study they could both utilize, with a wall between. 

 

Hux fiddled the jar containing the heart, finding it acceptable, but also finding the clean cut mark on the left common carotid artery were Kylo had taken off a bit of the end. He shook his head. Then, he turned at surveyed the room, which was a very obvious mix of both their styles. But it was comfortable. It was home. 

 

“Can you imagine being anywhere else?” Hux asked.

 

“To be honest, I don’t bother imagining. I don’t want to be anywhere else.” Kylo set their luggage down in the kitchen, and leaned his hip against the island.

 

Rolling the jar gently between both hands, Hux said, “Now that I think about it, I don’t either. Imagine it, I mean. I suppose that says something.”

 

With a quiet hum, Kylo approached Hux, took the jar from him to replace it on the mantle, and then took his now freed hands. They looked at one another for a long moment. Kylo went in for a gentle kiss and Hux reciprocated, nipping him softly on the lower lip. 

 

Kylo bumped their foreheads together, and rested there. “I didn’t mean to pressure you, especially not there, I just thought it was happening naturally.”

 

Hux breathed in, tired. “If we are already being honest, I think it is. Natural, I mean. It didn’t feel that way, but now that we’re back…” He shrugged. “It doesn’t seem strange at all. It feels like we’re already there.”

 

Kylo raised hopeful eyebrows. “We don’t have to, you know. We can just go on like this, however long we want. You still don’t even have to decide now.”

 

“I am about to make a very important decision and  _ you’re  _ having second thoughts?” Hux chided. 

 

“I’m not!” Kylo exclaimed, pulling both their hands up to protect him. “Tell me. If you’re going to say yes or no, just tell me.”

 

“Alright.” He squeezed tight, and Kylo squeezed back. “I am going to say yes. Go get the necklace.”

 

Kylo scurried away like a child on Christmas, excitement lighting up his whole face. He came back with it held reverently in his palms. Hux laughed. 

 

“Well, mine is already on, but we can do this sort of proper. It’s not a ring so...kneel.”

 

Immediately, Kylo dropped to one knee. It was kind of like proposing backwards. Hux found it funny, and kept smiling as he said, “Last chance. You want to marry slash bond with me?” 

 

It hadn’t been an easy relationship, and it hadn’t gotten off to the best start, but it was something they both were fairly sure they couldn’t live without, and that was enough. 

 

“Yes.”

 

Without further ceremony, Hux set the necklace over Kylo’s head. The liquid in the bottle sloshed as it bumped against his chest.  

 

Standing, Kylo wrapped Hux up in his arms and breathed in deeply at his neck. Hux’s arms came up to hold his back. After several quiet minutes they broke apart, and smiled at one another again. Hux kissed Kylo’s knuckles.

 

“Welcome home.”

**Author's Note:**

> hidden tag: marriage proposal
> 
> Find me at vmprsm.tumblr.com
> 
> If you want any more details about the universe, feel free to leave a comment or bother me on tumblr. :3


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